[comp.sys.proteon] Wanted: real life product reviews

stoltz@ida.org (Bill Stoltz) (03/23/89)

OH NO, not again.  Somebody trying to get free advice on some products.
Sorry! :-(  But you have to admit, for real life stories this is a great 
source of information.  How often to you get to praise or condem a
product to a complete stranger.

I have been talking to various vendors for the last 3 months on different
physical media equipment, Like SynOptics, ODS, Du Pont, and Proteon.
Now, I would like the truth, or at least your interpretation of it.

We have settled on a star topology for the horizontal wiring.  We installed
some unshieled twisted pair about 3 years ago, for RS 232, that we may
reuse, although that is not definite.  We will be using Fiber for the
Riser connections.

I would appreciate any real life information (good, bad, etc) 
about SynOptics, ODS, Du Pont Fiber Optics for AppleTalk,
ProNET-4, ProNET-10, and ProNET-80, or any other comperable products. Sorry
NO coax! :-) I have all the product information on all of these, I would like 
comments like "it works ok, except...." or "I had problems installing ...".
Don't feel like you have to give me a technical comparision, Stop right now
and tell me how the products you are using are working today, last week, last
month.

Oh yes, I almost forgot, Please send replies directly to me, and yes I will
summarize to anyone interested.

Thanks in advance for all the replies.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill  Stoltz					    Internet:  stoltz@ida.org
Institute for Defense Analyses
1801 N. Beauregard St.
Alexandria, Va 22311				Voice:  (703) 845-2119

ron@RON.RUTGERS.EDU (Ron Natalie) (03/23/89)

After some bad experiences with some early and not so early pronet ring
products, we punted here and went to Fibercom Whisperlan.  This device
looks like an Ethernet transceiver but the boxes are interconnected with
it's own token ring.  We haven't had any problems attributable to the
boxes, usually just the patch cords.  Fibercom is in Roanoake Va.

It's only Ethernet speed, but really, we've not got anything faster
feeding it right now, so it makes sense.

-Ron